Restaurant Point of Sale in Hawaii
By: POSGuys - 9/9/2014

On a recent trip to Honolulu Hawaii I couldn't help but take notice of the different restaurant pos systems in Honolulu and the surrounding areas. There was some unique challenges that I don't see in other areas of the US.
Multi-lingual needs: The state is so diverse with different cultures and different languages. You see Japanese restaurants, Multiple forms of Chinese Restaurants, Local Hawaiian Plate Lunch, unique asian desert restaurants, European Tapas restaurants, pretty much anything you can imagine but definitely restaurants with an Asian or Pacific Island types of feel to them. While most of these restaurants are family own where the serving staff speaks and reads the same language as the back of the house staff, this is not always the case, and it becomes a really big challenge to have a POS System that can display in Japanese or English depending on who is using it. We do sell a restaurant software <a href="https://posguys.com/point-of-sale-software_35/Aldelo-Pro-for-Restaurants_308/">Aldelo for Restaurants</a> that accommodates this, and every time I saw a college student getting chewed out by a restaurant owner that couldn't communicate to them what they wanted I kept wanting to let them know that using a different piece of software would really help with the language issue.
Front of the house staff normally is english speaking so they can communicate with the customers coming in from the mainland US, but back of the house often times is a non-english speaker. By using Aldelo's multi-lingual kitchen printing capabilities the kitchen ticket can auto-translate to the native language of the cooking staff. Something helpful when trying to relay important information such as gluten or nut allergies.
Another challenge that I saw was the additional cost and time to ship anything from the mainland to the Hawaii business. Shipping to an Oahu business takes 5 - 12 days for the economical shipping and then shipping to businesses on Maui, Kauai, or the Big Island takes even longer. This forces business to really be on top of their consumable needs else they have to pay for air shipping of the items. Even replacing a piece of equipment comes at an extra cost. One thing to consider is paperless receipts that email. PC America Cash Register Express can do it for local retail stores or you could use the Restaurant Pro Express version to do the same. Square register also emails receipts if your business is basic enough to use Square. 

One other large issue I saw was the unique types of businesses that originate in the islands. The first conveyor belt sushi restaurant that I saw was in Honolulu (<a href="http://www.genkisushiusa.com/">Genki Sushi</a>), and when I was there last I saw them hand tallying the different colored plates then hand writing a bill. The whole process can really be faster by using table side ordering like Aldelo Touch (requires an ipad). Server can just pull up the tablet tap the color of all the plates, and print out a bill right on the spot. They can even run the bill right there. I'd estimate for a fast pace business like Genki that they could turn over more tables and reduce their staff by going with a table side ordering system like that. Additionally the hot pot restaurants do a similar type of thing where the plates with ingredients are color coded and table side billing really makes sense.
Overall <a href="http://www.honolulu.gov/">Honolulu Businesses</a> are unique and highly competitive that they really need to provide a perfect dining experience. Even simple things like taking too long to get a bill, or forgetting to bring out a drink can create a really poor Yelp review that can potentially hurt or bring down a business. It's hard to make business owners want to put money into a POS System when they have so many costs, but looking at the big picture it's really worth investing in.

Restaurant Point of Sale in Hawaii By: POSGuys - 9/9/2014

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Restaurant Point of Sale in Hawaii
By: POSGuys - 9/9/2014